Barbara Jean Yoder

Barbara Jean Yoder, age 95, a resident of Wheaton, IL, died on Nov 6, 2025. She was born December 9, 1929 in Goshen, IN to Glenn and Ruth (Stump) Strycker.

At nine years old, while riding a bike, Barbara was struck by a car and suffered a fractured skull. The doctors said there was nothing they could do and she probably wouldn't survive. When Barbara did survive, the doctor told her mother, "It was nothing we did!" Miraculously, Barbara never had a headache in her life!

As a teenager at Goshen High School in the mid-1940's, she would often accompany two local pastors to Chicago to the Pacific Garden Mission, where she played the piano for the Unshackled Radio Broadcast. In 1950, she played the piano for evangelistic meetings held in Goshen, IN by evangelist, John R. Rice.

Barbara worked as a secretary (she excelled in shorthand) at Hettrick Manufacturing Company in Goshen, IN, and later at Fairbanks Morris in Chicago, IL. She married Kenneth A. Yoder on December 17, 1950. They had two children, Craig Alan (1954) and Jan Carla (1959).

Barbara had good friends, enjoyed playing the piano and memorizing Scripture. She also enjoyed table games.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Glenn and Ruth Strycker, her husband, Kenneth Yoder, her two brothers, Stanley and Wallace Strycker, and a sister-in-law, Bobbie Strycker.

Barbara is survived by her children, Craig (Patty) Yoder and Jan (Dietrich) Schindler, her grandchildren, Erich (Kelley) Schindler, Abigail (Ryan) Miller, Monica (Dominik) Kannenwischer, Karina (John) Whitney, and Lukas (Tania) Schindler, and her great-grandchildren, Max and Sam Schindler, Josiah, Esther and Isabelle Whitney, and Theodore and Arthur Kannenwischer, and a sister-in-law, Pat (Soncarty) Strycker.

A visitation will be held at Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main St., Wheaton, Illinois 60187, on Sunday, December 7, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. until the time of the memorial service at 3:00 p.m. A private inurnment will be held at Wheaton Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Focus on the Family (https://www.focusonthefamily.com) or the Bible Project (https://bibleproject.com).